Paul Thomas Anderson gives ambitious, foolish people enough time to make us care about them, and usually earns the long evening. We rate his crowded dramas and his turn towards the chase film highly; he is less convincing when people become cartoons.
Fi1m perspective
In Boogie Nights (1997), Burt Reynolds's Jack Horner wants people to take his pornography seriously as filmmaking. Anderson gives that ambition room without pretending it is free of absurdity. We laughed at Jack's professional pride, then warmed to him, because Reynolds makes his wish to do worthwhile work convincing. This is Anderson at his most generous: interested in what people think they deserve, and willing to spend time finding out why.
After the low-key neo-noir of his debut, Hard Eight (1996), Boogie Nights made the scale of his ambitions clear. His long takes and fluid camera movements help us follow crowded scenes, with cinematographer Robert Elswit among his recurring collaborators. Mark Wahlberg gives Eddie Adams an openness that makes his ambition touching; Julianne Moore gives Amber Waves emotional weight without pleading for sympathy. The familiar rise-and-fall story makes some of its 156 minutes feel unnecessary. Still, Anderson rarely asks us to enjoy being cleverer than his characters.
The sprawling ensemble was never his only way of working. There Will Be Blood (2007) concentrated on oil prospecting and isolation, while Phantom Thread (2017) took him into 1950s London fashion. His patience is less helpful when a story starts to wander. Inherent Vice (2014), his earlier Thomas Pynchon adaptation, was baggy and too pleased with itself.
One Battle After Another (2025) makes a welcome change of pace, turning Pynchon's Vineland into a chase film. The opening raid gives Teyana Taylor's Perfidia the initiative and leaves Leonardo DiCaprio's explosives man Bob trying to keep up. Anderson makes the action funny without slowing its momentum. This is the fastest film he has directed, and his funniest since Boogie Nights. At 162 minutes it still needs pruning, but the forward motion is a useful corrective to Inherent Vice.
The weakness is the people doing the pursuing. Sean Penn's Colonel Lockjaw is an effective comic turn whom Anderson also needs to be frightening, and the caricature gets in the way. The director who gives Jack Horner such patient attention is less persuasive when he has decided a character deserves none. Start with Boogie Nights for that patience, or One Battle After Another for the speed; allow both more time than their stories strictly require.
Biography
Paul Thomas Anderson is an American filmmaker. He was born on 26 June 1970 in Studio City, California.
Anderson wrote and directed Hard Eight (1996), Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999), Punch-Drunk Love (2002), There Will Be Blood (2007), The Master (2012), Inherent Vice (2014), Phantom Thread (2017), Licorice Pizza (2021) and One Battle After Another (2025). He also produced the last of these.
